Installing FPGA (vivado) with LV 2018

[sth]

I am either doing something entirely stupid, or there is a catch 22 here.  I have a cRIO 9039 with a Kintex FPGA.  This needs the Vivado FPGA tools.  I have the academic/research SSP install media and I try to install LV 18 on a Win 10 system.

The Vivado FPGA tools are 64 bit and will not install for the 32 bit LabVIEW.  The FPGA module to actually communicate with the cRIO seems to only install in the 32 bit Labview.  I therefore have to install both 32 bit and 64 bit systems.  But both versions of LV show that I am missing a module to communicate with the hardware!  This works fine under LV 17 (which had the 32 bit Vivado tools).

Is it true that LV 18 will not work with the newer versions of cRIO hardware???  That seems brain dead.

[TheEngineeringBear]

What was the order of your installation?  Sounds to me more like LabVIEW isn't associating the FPGA Module.

I have the 2018 stack and compile fine with FPGA 2018.

Remember that you need to install LabVIEW, then any modules you will be using, then the device drivers.  Also, you can always try the cloud compiler that NI provides.

-Bear

[sth]

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@TheEngineeringBear wrote:

What was the order of your installation?  Sounds to me more like LabVIEW isn't associating the FPGA Module.

I have the 2018 stack and compile fine with FPGA 2018. 

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I inserted the USB installer and then clicked all the items I wanted.  If I clicked FPGA it said I needed 32 bit LV.  If I clicked the Vivado it said I needed the 64 bit LV.  I clicked both and then told it to install everything.  Repeated the process a second time to make sure I had it all.

It may be that my issue is that this is a FPGA on a cRIO with a Kintex FPGA and RT support is not in 64 bit and Kintex FPGA compile is only in 64 bit LV?

[elcalverado]

I'm a little confused. Are you using 32- or 64-bit LabVIEW? In LabVIEW 2018 there are separate installers for the 32-bit and 64-bit versions of the FPGA module, but if you are using a cRIO you should stick with 32-bit for everything since there is no 64-bit version of the RT Module.

Make sure you are running the 32-bit FPGA Module installer. It should give you the option to install the Xilinx Vivado tools.

-Jordan

[GatorChomp]

Jumping in here because I'm curious if there might be an installer issue presenting itself. 

The Vivado Compile Tool that we use, to my knowledge, has always installed for the bitness of the OS it installs on. From our compilation tool compatibility white paper (edit: Whoops, forgot the link😞
"RIO devices using Virtex 6, Kintex 7, or Virtex 7 chips require compilation on a 64-bit OS."

I have a system running the LabVIEW 2018 FPGA Vivado 2017.2 Compile Tool (it installed as 64-bit), with both LabVIEW 2018 FPGA 32-bit and 64-bit. While it is correct that the cRIO-9039 requires LabVIEW FPGA 32-bit, it should still be able to use the 64-bit compile tool as that runs in a separate process.

With all that being said, I used our Platform media instead of the academic version and would be curious to see what messages or behavior you are running into that indicates a problem. There might be some issue with the actual installer, but all 3 pieces of software should work without issue on a 64-bit OS together. 

[sth]

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@GatorChomp wrote:

Jumping in here because I'm curious if there might be an installer issue presenting itself. 

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That is my guess here.  I did not have this issue with LV 17 and Win 10.  But I am windows impaired.  So I installed both LV 18-32 and LV 18-64 and as many compilers and FPGA modules as I can.  I then moved my LV 17 project over to this new VM system and opened it.  Under LV 18-64, I get the following:

LV 18-64

I then open the project under LV 18-32

So I go back to my Academic LV 2018 NI Platform Bundle Spring 2018 and select as much as possible.  The first error is that the RT module does not allow selection of LV 18-64

Selecting RT module

So going ahead with the install, without LV 18-64 I get that the older Xilinx tools do not install.  Fine, don't need them at the moments, so deselect them.

Can't install ISE Xilinx tools

Now I get one last issue:

Now it tells me that the older Xilinx tools are necessary.  The compiler has completed the loop and the Catch 22 is complete.

Spoiler

There was only one catch and that was Catch-22, which specified that a concern for one's own safety in the face of dangers that were real and immediate was the process of a rational mind. Orr was crazy and could be grounded. All he had to do was ask; and as soon as he did, he would no longer be crazy and would have to fly more missions. Orr would be crazy to fly more missions and sane if he didn't, but if he was sane, he had to fly them. If he flew them, he was crazy and didn't have to; but if he didn't want to, he was sane and had to. Yossarian was moved very deeply by the absolute simplicity of this clause of Catch-22 and let out a respectful whistle.
"That's some catch, that Catch-22," he observed.
"It's the best there is," Doc Daneeka agreed.

[elcalverado]

The ISE Tools are definitely not supported on Windows 10, only Vivado. I agree that there seems to be an installer problem since the 32-bit FPGA Module shouldn't be requiring you to install the ISE Tools. Something you could try is to install the following from your USB media:

1. LabVIEW 2018 32-bit (and 64-bit if you want it, although you won't be able to program the cRIO with it).
2. LabVIEW Real-Time 2018.

Then download and install the FPGA module from NI's website:

LabVIEW 2018 FPGA Module

After that is installed, are you able to install just the Vivado Tools from the USB installer?

-Jordan

[sth]

Jordan, I will try this and report back.  I take it from your "blue" login that you are NI and if so, can you check with R&D on the installer issue and let me know if there is a CAR?  Thanks,

Scott

[sth · Accepted solution]

Yes, that works and installing the FPGA module from the download instead of the install media works!  Please try to get the installer fixed for those installations where network access is restricted.  It would be great to get a CAR on that.